Now this idyllic picture is a real photograph that I took just Thursday in a hidden little area near Eminence, Missouri, named Alley Springs. The site of an old mill (see insert, right) dating back to the mid-1800's it is a testimony to "Things you cannot figure out" but "must enjoy". Just look at the colors of the water, for Pete's sake (Who is Pete, by the way?)! Blues and greens that are normally found only in seawater are the deepest and richest of blue and green hues. The upper pond is so deep and clear it is truly unbelievable.
Surrounded by lichen covered rocks, periwinkle blue wildflowers and the sunlight that danced liked diamonds off the water, my two trail mates I stood stupefied at this natural wonder. I would give you all the particulars, but the park pamphlet is stuffed in the belly of my car which has seen Arkansas, Missouri, now Tennessee and tomorrow, West Virginia; all since last Tuesday.
Now this trail ride is an area that a dear friend and a few married acquaintances of mine have met at for 13 years running. It started 50 years ago on private property is for true horse enthusiasts. They bring their own horses in trailers and camp in the grounds for about 10 days until they pull out and then look forward to meeting again next year.
I do not ride well, do not have my own horse but was content to soak up the atmosphere in the two days that I was there. One day, we canoed down the Jack River which starts in that pool of water above. No one is quite sure (even the park officials) of why the anomaly in nature has occurred but, there it is, as clear and beautiful as can be. Locals in the 1800's harnessed it for milling flour and you can visit all the work stations on display, for free.
The second day, while everyone else was riding, I held down the camp chair and snoozed while listening to the cacophony of Horse Camp. When I closed my eyes, I could hear the leaves falling like rain to the ground, an occasional mule bray, the rumble of diesel trucks everywhere, the smell of woodsmoke; which smells good only until your head hits the pillow, and then I was awakened to a horse snorting just above my head.
The perpetrator was one of the ten or so people who has met with the group for those 13 years. Everyone was married but this fellow and me so as you can imagine, there were not too subtle seating arrangements at the table or bus from the river to get us next to each other.
In my every day life, I have a lot of stress and am a fixer-upper of a lot of other people's trouble and derailment and while most of the time, I handle it with aplomb, there are times, like it has been in the last two weeks, that I find myself not handling the stress very well. It was such a welcome r-e-l-i-e-f to talk to an interesting adult male just about things, about the camaraderie around the table and in the canoes floating languidly down-river, that I really enjoyed it.
Well here's the kicker: we live several states a part. So there was that 'bittersweet thing' in life again; I was happy to have met a very Nice Man. Two days later though, I saddled up my real life and left.
I copied off the photographs that I had taken and sent them off to Nice Man with confidence knowing that he too, enjoyed a Nice Woman's visit and perspective in his life.
Today, at cousin's in Tennessee, I have been taking a lot of photographs of her local scenery and indigenous plants. I will share those with you in a few days when I finally get to rest my head upon my own bed in Kentucky.
Until then, soak up whatever is around and in front of you. Store up the sunshine like the squirrels who are gathering nuts so in the cold of winter, you can draw them out and be warmed all over by just the thought of the fall days.
